KUALA LUMPUR: Eight firms have been fined a total of RM1,548,192.35 after being found guilty of bid rigging conduct involving four IT-related projects.
Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) chief executive officer Iskandar Ismail said the projects were worth RM1.92mil under the National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage of Malaysia (Aswara).
In addition, he told a press conference on Tuesday (July 5), MyCC was currently investigating 20 other cases involving 500 companies for suspected bid rigging activities in contracts worth more than RM2bil.
Iskandar said MyCC began investigating the Aswara projects after receiving information on suspected bid rigging from the academy.
“We investigated the matter under Section 15 of the Competition Act 2010 to determine if there was an infringement of the Act.
“During the course of the investigation, we discovered four projects containing similar elements of bid rigging, one involving a tender and three requests for quotation (RFQ),” he said.
The eight companies were Tuah Packet Sdn Bhd (Tuah Packet), Caliber Interconnects Sdn Bhd (Caliber), Aliran Digital Sdn Bhd (Aliran Digital), Novatis Resources Sdn Bhd (Novatis), ViaMED Sdn Bhd (ViaMED), Silver Tech Synergy Sdn Bhd (Silver Tech), Venture Nucleus Sdn Bhd (Venture Nucleus) and Basenet Technology Sdn Bhd (Basenet).
Iskandar said Aswara was prompted to notify MyCC of its suspicions in 2017 after a Tuah Packet representative attended a business presentation for a tender which Caliber had won the year before.
“Our investigations found that there were two cartels involved in the bid rigging process," he said.
He added that following the imposition of fines, the companies concerned could be blacklisted and prevented from taking part in or accepting procurement offers from government agencies for up to five years.
“We will be resolute (in taking) stern action with more decisions to follow,” he said.
